Kent State University : Innovation + Job News

Ohio may not have the sunshine or constant wind found elsewhere, but there's no doubt about it. Advanced and alternative energy is becoming a big deal in Ohio.

The growth of the industry is the catalyst for Nortech's first ever Advanced Energy B2B Conference and Expo Sept. 14 and 15 in downtown Akron, says Karen Allport, vice president of strategic outreach for the tech-based economic development organization serving northeast Ohio.

“Ohio has a very strong manufacturing base, innovative research facilities and a highly skilled workforce,” she explains. “In fact, we have more than 400 organizations, large and small, engaged in advanced energy research and manufacturing.”

Ohio leads the Great Lakes in offshore wind development, with wind farms throughout the state. Major studies are being conducted on fuel cells and photovoltaics, and Northeast Ohio is teeming with top-notch national and international manufacturers and research institutions.

Allport ticks off names of some Ohio companies involved in advanced energy.

“FirstEnergy is the nation’s fifth-largest investor owned electric utility,” Allport points out. Others include Eaton Corp., Lincoln Electric, Babcock & Wilcox, Cliffs Natural Resources, GE Lighting, Parker Hannifin, and the Timken Company, she notes. She also mentions ongoing energy research at Kent State University, the University of Akron, and Case Western Reserve University.

Consider this: Ohio is fourth in the country in the number of clean energy jobs, with 35,267 employees working in the state’s advanced energy industries. Ohio is sixth in the nation in number of clean technology businesses, for a total of 2,513 clean energy companies. We’re also seventh nationwide in the total number of clean energy patents filed -- 309 patents over the past decade.

There’s an international component to the Advanced Energy B2B Conference and Expo as well, according to Allport.

“We have a mayor’s association involved whose members want to showcase advanced energy activities in their communities, so they’re in touch with groups in India and Great Britain to generate interest in collaboration,” she explains. “Our overall goal with this energy conference and expo is to provide programs and exhibits that drive opportunities for commercial activities,” Allport notes.

With more than 300 people from all over Ohio and nationwide expected to attend and all 70 exhibit spaces already sold out for the upcoming conference, perhaps the combination of advanced energy + the state of Ohio will finally gets its due. 

Source:  Karen Allport, Nortech
Writer:  Lynne Meyer

Northeast Ohio is already a leader in flexible electronics. Now, a number of partners are working to make it the "global epicenter" of the industry.

The goal? To add 1,500 jobs, $75 million in payroll and $100 million in capital to Northeast Ohio by 2017.

Last week, NorTech -- a regional nonprofit economic development organization focused on high tech job growth -- announced a shared vision and action plan to speed growth of the industry in northeast Ohio.

The Northeast Ohio Flexible Electronics Roadmap outlines strategies and initiatives to build global market capabilities in the low-cost manufacturing of flexible electronics -- devices printed on flexible materials. Examples include liquid crystal devices and flexible sensors and circuits.

The Northeast Ohio Flexible Electronics Roadmap charts a path for identifying and pursuing market opportunities; increasing public funding and private investment; strengthening cluster alignment, communication, and partnering; monitoring and reporting cluster growth and impact; and improving visibility and recognition.

"Northeast Ohio's flexible electronics cluster is rooted in the world-renown, breakthrough work of The Liquid Crystal Institute at Kent State University, the globally recognized advances in polymer science by the University of Akron, as well as a growing number of small, medium and large companies that are producing flexible electronics applications," says Kelly South, NorTech's senior director of communications.

Nortech led development of the roadmapping process in partnership with 23 technology and industry experts representing research institutions, manufacturers, materials suppliers and product developers. The strategies will be executed over the next 12 months, South says, but added that the document will "serve as a living document that will capture technology shifts, changes in market dynamics and new growth opportunities in Northeast Ohio."

NorTech and other partners have branded the northeast Ohio flexible electronics cluster as FlexMatters.

Source: Kelly South, NorTech
Writer: Gene Monteith

Usually, a glance in the rear-view mirror reveals what's in the past. But that's not at all the case for AlphaMirror. The Kent-based liquid crystal spin-off looks at its new, auto-dimming mirror technology, and sees the future.

AlphaMirror CEO and President Yehuda Borenstein says the company is focusing its work on changing the market for rear-view mirrors � one liquid crystal at a time.

Using technology developed at nearby Kent State University, the mirror will automatically adjust, depending how much light is available, using a liquid crystal display. Unlike a computer, there is only one pixel. And the panel is made of plastic, not glass.

"The tricks are in the details � how well you get the clear state and how well you get the dark state," Borenstein says, adding that auto-dimming mirrors have been around for a while."Our advantages are lower cost, a lighter weight and less power consumption."

AlphaMirror has teamed up with its parent company, AlphaMicron, and Michigan-based Magna Mirrors to develop Digital Mirror. The collaboration netted a $1 million grant from the Ohio Third Frontier initiative to develop and test the special dimming mirror. Borenstein expects the technology to reshape the entire industry.

"That's why we've had such success � people are very interested," he says.

AlphaMirror currently employs two people, but "soon we will grow to three or four" employees, says Borenstein. More employees will be added when the product goes to market within the next few years.

"We've teamed with Magna, the largest rear-view mirror manufacturer in the world," he says. "The potential is good, now the question is can we make it. I think we can. And I think we will."

Source: Yehuda Borenstein
Writer: hiVelocity staff

It can take as long as 24 hours to detect toxins (ranging from E-coli to anthrax) and the people affected could be long gone by the time lab technicians and health departments figure it out. Thanks to new technology, that may all change.

Crystal Diagnostics � with its parent company Pathogen Systems Inc. � is working to develop liquid crystal biosensors to detect pathogens in real-time, instead of a day.

The detection device � jointly invented by researchers at Kent State University and the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy in Rootstown � combines both liquid crystal technology and antibody research to find harmful pathogens.

Work at the Crystal Diagnostics Applied Research Laboratory on the campus of NEOUCOM is ongoing. And plans are in motion to move into Centennial Park at KSU for manufacturing the device.

As the project grows, so will the local workforce.

Walter E. Horton Jr., NEOUCOM's vice president for research, said there are a total of 15 full-time positions at Crystal Diagnostics, and that when the device goes "live" there could be a dozen jobs added immediately.

"We see this as one of the innovation success in Ohio," says Horton, who also oversees the millions of dollars the company has received from the Ohio Third Frontier initiative in the last two years. "We have two public entities � Kent State and NEOUCOM � working together. This is exactly the direction this state wants to go."

"This company is based in Colorado, but (Pathogen Systems) saw a real benefit of moving to Northeast Ohio, because of the support of the Third Frontier and because of the regional success in terms of biomedical innovation," he says.

Source: Walter E. Horton Jr.
Writer: hiVelocity staff

More than 40 years ago, researchers at Kent State University had an idea that liquid crystals could revolutionize modern technology. The soft, yet fluid, crystals could be aligned by electric charges, and voil� � crystal clear displays.

The idea was scoffed at � even ridiculed. Glenn Brown, the lead researcher on the project, was thought of as "crazy." But other Kent State researchers signed on. That mad-professor technology has morphed from a brilliant idea to a homegrown LCD Kent-made wristwatch, and into technology that has shaped the last few decades.

Modern televisions, cell phones and laptop computers are just a few of the products that simply could not exist without the innovation of the KSU Liquid Crystal Institute, says director Oleg Lavrentovich. He estimates that just last year the liquid crystal industry � for flat panel TVs alone � was worth about $140 billion. There are an estimated 1,000 jobs in Ohio related to the technology, and "tens of thousands" more around the globe

"The success story is not associated with the number of people employed, but the increased quality of life," Lavrentovich says. "Just about everything that carries information uses liquid crystal displays."

In 2008, the institute hauled in about $17 million in research dollars from state and federal agencies, divided among liquid crystal researchers around Ohio.

"Scientific exploration can lead to enormous economy impact in just a couple of decades," Lavrentovich says. "The 1960s in Kent is an example of that. From the first (liquid crystal) wristwatch in Kent to a $140 billion industry is just an illustration� it's mind-blowing."

Source: Oleg Lavrentovich
Writer: HiVelocity Staff

In 1997, Bahman Taheri, Tamas Kosa and Peter Palffy were researchers at Kent State University's Liquid Crystal Institute. Then the U.S. Air Force came calling -- and the trio became businessmen.

The resulting company, AlphaMicron, Inc., set out to solve a nagging problem with the forward positioning of flight deck displays, says Kosa. Specifically, military pilots in a dogfight must always look forward, unable to turn their heads to look outside.

What if you projected the data on the inside of a pilot's visor instead? Problem one: No one had the technology to place a liquid crystal display on a curved surface like a visor. Problem two: The data needed to be visible even with the sun shining in the pilot's eyes. And it couldn't go dark if the pilot ejected.

"Our response was, let's start a company," says Kosa, now AlphaMicron's chief operating officer. (Taheri became AlphaMicron's chief executive officer and Palffy, who remains on staff at Kent State, is what Kosa describes as "a silent partner.")

AlphaMicron, based in Kent, solved the first problem by developing the world's only liquid crystal technology for curved surfaces. While the firm continues to perfect technology needed for a usable military visor, the 35-employee company is making waves with a line of "switchable" goggles that allow skiers and snowboarders to adjust to prevailing conditions.

Sun too bright? Push a button and dim your lenses. Sun behind a cloud? Push it again. Developed in collaboration with Uvex Sports in 2004, the goggles won a Popular Science "Best of What's New" award in 2004. Similar technology is now being used to commercialize switchable visors for other sports eyewear and motorcycle helmets, Kosa said.

Source: Tamas Kosa, AlphaMicron
Writer: Gene Monteith

What's your favorite color? That question may seem inconsequential now, but for those about to drop $1,000 on a sporty new laptop it can be downright paralyzing.

Thanks to the creative geniuses at Kent Displays, future laptop owners will be able to change the exterior colors of their machines with the proverbial flick of a switch. Cloaked in the company's Reflex LCD eSkin, a paper-thin liquid crystal display, devices such as laptops, smartphones and MP3 players can change appearances as quickly as a chameleon.

Founded by Dr. J. William Doane, former director of Kent State University's Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent Displays is a pioneer in cholesteric liquid crystal technology. Unlike standard LCDs that require a constant source of power, Reflex displays will retain an image indefinitely, even when the power is off.

The eSkin application is only the "tip of the iceberg," says Kevin Oswald, Kent Display's communications director. A new portable hard drive from Verbatim, for example, uses the technology to display available space even when the USB drive is disconnected.

Perhaps more impressive is the environmentally friendly eNote, a portable writing tablet. Consumers use a stylus to write on the pressure-sensitive display, eliminating the need for pen and paper.

While 99 percent of glass LCDs are still manufactured in Asia, Kent Display's plastic LCDs are produced on site at its Kent, Ohio facilities.

Kent Displays currently employs 60 people, but with the impending release of its eNote Tablet, and expected wide-spread adoption of its eSkin application, that number is expected to grow.

Source: Kevin Oswald, Kent Displays
Writer: Douglas Trattner